//------------------------------// // Chapter 15, Snow Pony // Story: The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 12 -- Sweep of Time // by shysage //------------------------------// Well, I think we slept well, but I woke up to that same foreboding tune in the background[1]. Shysage said he heard it too. I don't know... After a nice warm shower on another cold day, we were on our way. We stopped at some small restaurant and ordered some fries, and had fries and soda for breakfast. It was during breakfast that Shysage pulled out the loaner cell phone, to check for any texts I think. He was quickly working at a different screen, and I watched him type in (I guessed) a new text message. He showed it to me when he was done. It was to Equestria Girls Shyna. Covert, need Equestria pony Camille at the old mustang storage unit, around 10 or so (late evening in Equestria I think). I read the text, then started crying softly. Shysage sent the text, put the cell thing on the table then hugged me. Our neighbor in Equestria, Dawn, well Camille was her daughter. So many precious, beloved friends... And now we couldn't even... It all seemed so unfair to me. I cried softly on Shysage's shoulder for a little while. While I was crying, the response came quickly back, from Filia (Equestria Girls Filia), Shysage said. It read simply "on it." We were in a public place, so I worked on calming down, and we finished the fries (except for a few really nasty looking ones). Shysage refilled his soda, and we left. Our next stop was a store that I, we had never been to, that I know of. Well, Shysage used to live here, in this area, so I don't know. I held one of Shysage's hands tightly the whole time. The store was big, and I... In the Equestria Girls world, if he and I were ever separated... I went everywhere he did in that store. He kissed me gently on my cheek a few times. I think that was his way of letting me know that me squeezing his hand to death was ok. He didn't want to lose me either. But, after paying, we left that store with a big white bucket full of some stuff I didn't even recognize, and would be hard pressed to even describe. Once we were back in the car, and on the road, I suspected we were back in the same general area as CHS. "Shysage, what is all that stuff for?" Shysage sighed, then said quietly. "If Cel in the Past thought that small statue of her sister would help, we need to try to make another one, to at least see if it still might help... although..." Shysage didn't finish, but I couldn't see what difference that statue would make either. Well, again, we just didn't know... anything... For maybe half an hour, Shysage drove us around quiet streets lined with house after house. He pulled me close as he drove, and I tried to relax. He drove slow, and kissed me a few more times too, even though he was driving! Well, there weren't a lot of cars on the street. Shysage said it was saturday here anyway, and people usually stayed home and relaxed, so there were fewer cars on the road. Then he smiled, and said "Besides, I love my Mare." I gave him a big kiss for that. We soon pulled up to... This was the storage unit where Shysage had kept one of his old Mustangs. Well, he gave the one that was here to Pinky Pie (Equestria Girls Pinkie Pie), so she and the Pie sisters could fix it up and give it to their parents as a huge surprise. That was amazing! The Pie sisters lovingly restored that beautiful car right in this unit. Shysage unlocked the lock, and rolled the door up; it was very noisy. And that sea of discarded, rusty parts was still scattered around the edges of that room. You would never have known that a beautiful Mustang was reborn in here... There was an old bench seat that Shysage said was from an old Van, whatever that is. Anyway, Shysage gently sat me down on that seat, and sat next to me. We hugged tightly, and just sat there briefly. Well, I just knew Shysage was asking true friend for help with this, so I did too. Shysage got up, got the big bucket of stuff from the store out of big blue, then got to work. Well, he emptied the bucket, but dumped some of the sacks back in it, added some water from a hose nearby outside, brought it back in, mixed it a while, then left it sitting there, on the floor in the middle of the room. Then he came back and sat next to me. He hugged me close again, and I didn't mind that at all. Still, I wasn't sure how that bucket of watery goo would help us, but I have learned that Shysage usually thinks things through. Honestly, I was just glad to be next to him, hugging him, and not shivering cold and starving to death. Well, it was cold, but we weren't starving, and our clothing and sweatshirts kept us warm. For another half hour, we just sat together on that seat, hugging... I was soon weeping softly. It was just very difficult for me to shake off the pain swirling all around us... We heard people approaching, and, when they were close, I recognized that squeaky, high pitched voice... Equestria pony Camille was a people now, probably around 10 years old, Shysage said later. Her beautiful brown hair tumbled playfully down over her sweatshirt. She burst into tears, and ran clumsily over to us when she saw us. Shysage caught her before she fell, and we just hugged and cried together for a while. Camille tried to talk but it came out all disjointed. "We were so worried..." "They wouldn't tell my mom anything..." "The guards are so mean..." "We both missed you so much..." Camille was crying pretty hard. We were used to this. Whatever had happened... We hugged her tight and cried with her. Shysage noticed first, and realized... Filia and Fiona were taking a big risk doing this, and their Twins, Equestria ponies Filia and Fiona probably had as well, in order to get Camille through the Portal. These four amazing girls were just trying to help stop whatever madness... Shysage noticed that Filia and Fiona looked very apprehensive, and were constantly looking out the door, probably for somepony important... Shysage led Camille and I over to that bench seat, and we sat down, still crying together, hugging... Shysage pulled another smaller, but sturdy looking seat from a nearby corner. He set the bucked of watery goo on that stool, I guess it is called. He walked over to a big red thing with a bunch of small, shallow drawers and pulled out some big scissor things. Not intentionally, but he was between Camille and I and that bucket, so I didn't see what he did. A bunch of white bucket pieces fell to the ground around him though, I don't know. When he moved, he started cleaning up pieces of bucket. But it looked like the bucket was still there. Well, some sort of white bucket shaped stuff was... Wow, I don't know... The bucket pieces went into a large pail in the corner. Next, Shysage pulled over an orange cord thing. Rummaging around in that thing with a bunch of drawers, he soon came over with a small back thing with what looked like something poking out of the end. He plugged it into that orange cord, and turned it on. It made a loud, high pitched whirring sound. Camille and I both looked at the same time. It sounded dangerous. Shysage turned it off, and he wasn't bleeding, so I think we concluded it was ok. Shysage walked over, and kneeled in front of Camille. He sighed... "Camille you have a very special talent. Only right now, we really need your talent to try to resolve whatever is going on in Equestria. And honestly Camille, you are the only pony in Equestria who can help us right now..." "Still trying to not cry, Camille said quietly "Shysage, how can I help?" And her emphasis was on the word "I". She didn't think she could help because she was just a young philly... Shysage sighed again. "Camille, I need you to make a snow pony..." "Shysage, I... Where is the snow?" Camille replied, clearly confused. Well, I was too. Shysage looked at me and said quietly "Summer, I need you to change into a pony, and strike the same pose as that little statue." I slowly got up, and did... that... Making sure there was room, I changed back into a pony, then stood myself back up on my hind legs. Balancing like that was very hard, I won't lie. Then I extended my wings like that statue... Camille was smiling ear to ear. "It's our Summer!" she said proudly and with a squeak. Shysage helped Camille up, and led her over to that white thing. It wasn't goo any more, I guess. Standing next to Camille, he picked up the black thing and turned it on. Camille backed up a step. Shysage poked the pointed end into the goo and slowly moved it around. He wrote Camille's name in the white stuff, just by moving the black thing around. "Camille, this works the same as your stick. You can carve anything you want out of this white block. Well, we really need you to make a small statue that looks just like Princess Luna. You can use Summer as your example, but remember Princess Luna has a Unicorn horn." Shysage said this much, then just sighed. We couldn't really force Camille to do this. And if she didn't want to... "Gimme that..." Camille said excitedly. Shysage explained that the tip on the end would seriously injure her if it touched her, so she had to be very careful. Camille's eyes were already fixed on that white chunk of stuff... Starting at the top, center, she was clearly trying to do the tip of the Unicorn horn. Camille was smiling... Camille abruptly stopped. "Shysage, this will take forever..." Shysage took the black thing, turned it off, walked over to the red thing of drawers, worked a minute, then came over with a much bigger poky thing coming out the end. "Camille, you must be very careful with this..." Shysage warned. He turned it back on, then carefully handed it back to Camille. Camille got back to work... smiling... grinning... laughing... Shysage had Filia hold the orange cord thing, and move it around if necessary to keep the cord to the noisy black thing free, so Camille could focus on her work. And Shysage rolled over a big, noisy vacuum, and held it close to where Camille was working. Camille pushed it playfully away often if it got in her way. But white dust was flying away furiously, and the vacuum thing caught most of it... Camille started at the top... She carefully, majestically, skillfully, amazingly... She slowly made her way to the bottom. As she worked the white stuff, with the noisy black thing, an amazingly detailed statue of Princess Luna slowly emerged out of that featureless chunk of white. Shysage mentioned that Princess Luna's eyes needed to be closed, and she was laughing. Without even looking up, Camille laughed herself, and said "of course." Where large chunks needed to be removed, Camille would cut away around them, pull them off, and throw them backwards over her shoulder, laughing.. Camille would stop every so often to rest her arm. Shysage quickly grabbed the noisy black thing and turned it off. Maybe it needed to rest, too. Camille was so clearly enjoying this, and was also clearly so proud of her work. Ignoring everything else, she sort of danced around it, laughing. She ran up to Filia and Fiona and hugged them... She ran over to me, still a pony, and gently hugged me too. Camille is such a treasure... such a precious little girl... Camille got back to work when she wanted. "Gimme that thing" is what she usually said. Two and a half hours later... That amazing statue of Princess Luna was all that remained of that featureless chunk... Wings, mane and tail, slight pony body, beautiful Unicorn horn... Camille asked for the first pointy thing "so she could smooth it out, and clean it up" she said laughing. Half an hour more, Camille was done. She almost threw the noisy black thing at Shysage, who caught the cord, turned it off, and carefully vacuumed over the statue, and all the other white stuff he could find. He vacuumed Camille off too, and she laughed and giggled the whole time. We knew what would happen next, so Shysage backed Filia away, and moved the vacuum. Camille pranced around her Snow Pony yelling "Mommy... Mommy..." Then Camille began to cry... "If only my mom could see this..." Shysage hugged her from the side, and said quietly "If we can arrange that, we will Camille. You have a very special gift, an amazing talent." Fiona took a few pictures with her cell phone thing. I changed back into a people, and joined a group hug. Filia, Fiona and Camille, with Shysage and I. But our hug had to be painfully short. Fiona said quietly "We need to get her home, sorry. I think this took way longer..." I hugged Camille tightly "Precious Camille, thank you sooo much..." Filia and Fiona walked out the door with Camille, and they were gone. I couldn't help it, I started crying. "Shysage I miss our neighbors so..." Shysage and I hugged for a few minutes as I cried. Still, Shysage said he had work to do. He got a few can looking things out of an old box, and started shaking them. They were soon making a lot of noise as he shook them; something inside was rattling around or something. He shook both cans a while. He said to himself "Royal Blue, that should do..." Then he, well I don't know, that little can was painting the statue of Princess Luna. And it was dark blue, just like she was. Shysage took his time, and painted the whole statue. When he was done, he sighed. "Probably take three coats..." whatever that meant. Between painting, Shysage and I sat next to each other, hugging... waiting for the paint to dry, Shysage said. Right after Shysage had completed the second coat, Fiona came back, alone, clearly out of breath. "Shysage, I'm sorry... I saw through my Twin... Princess Twilight watched our Twins help Camille through the Portal on the Equestria end. Princess said quietly for them to take Camille home, but that she wanted to talk to them when they came back. Our Twins won't lie. She will know what we are doing." Fiona started crying. And I did too, this whole thing seemed so unfair, to everypony... Shysage hugged Fiona, and said quietly "You girls are so brave. This is not your fault, we all tried as best as we could to remedy whatever is happening. You have our deepest appreciation." Just then, Fiona's cell phone thing made a noise. Fiona pulled it out, looked, then sighed... "I gotta go..." and she was off running... On both sides of the Portal... The word was out (I heard a bleacher girl say that...) We didn't have much time... "Shysage the world is insane... Even here..." I really didn't... I just cried as Shysage hugged me. It was time for the third coat, and Shysage quickly had that done. Then he came and sat down next to me. "Summer, I don't remember, was the mane and tail on that little statue a different color, the lighter, nightmist blue Lu's mane and tail are? I just can't remember...." Well, we had not seen Cel's statue for very long anyway. I couldn't remember either. As the paint dried, Shysage and I, we just sat together on that bench. Well, we had something, anyway. Princess Celestia in the Past had tried to give us a statue. Well, thanks to a supremely talented pony in Equestria, we had at least that statue now. Whatever good... For the next 20 or so minutes, Shysage and I just sat there. We had this statue. I think we both felt so emptied. The pain around us... We just sat there. Shysage had his arm around me, hugging me... I think we were both just dazed... Shysage sighed, then got up. He touched the statue a few times, to make sure the paint was dry. Then he carefully picked the statue up, and the stool, and moved both out, just past the end of the storage unit, and into the sun. It was cold, but the sunlight would help the paint dry, Shysage mentioned. I stood next to the statue, because the sun felt wonderful. Shysage went back inside, and started rooting through boxes again, probably looking for some lighter colored blue paint. Another car pulled up next to big blue, and stopped. Out stepped... Principal Celestia... I was ready to hug her, but her eyes clearly indicated that was not a good idea. She walked up to me. She looked at the statue. "Well... well... well..." was all she said. It sounded like I was one of her little students... Shysage walked up and said "Oh, hi, we..." Principal Celestia reached a hand out and pushed Shysage back into the storage unit. Of course, Shysage didn't fight her. Then she quickly pulled the rolling door thing noisily down, and latched him inside. I... I was crying right away. "Why are you--" "Young lady, you had better take that statue and head to Canterlot" I was speechless. What? "I have no clue where the Portal even is" I protested weakly. "Get in..." Principal Celestia said roughly. A few minutes later, the car stopped at the end of the long walkway leading to the front of CHS, to the huge statue whose support wall held the Portal. Principal Celestia reached across in front of me, and opened my door for me. "Get going" she said sternly. Well, I didn't want to stay here with her, not now. Crying fiercely because I wanted my stallion, I climbed out of the car, being very careful with Camille's statue. I walked quickly down the walkway. I wasted no time. This was madness... I clutched Camille's statue tightly to my chest, and walked through the Portal wall.